It is well-known that brush land fires, timber fires and urban wild fires destroy vast tracts of land and property every year in the United States and around the world. The vast and uncontrolled nature of the destruction is in part due to the fact that fire fighting techniques have not improved in many years, the sole exception being air attack fire fighting, which consists of nothing more than dumping water and fire retardant upon the fire from the air. Most forest fire fighting is still done with hand crews using fire picks and shovels. A consistent problem is that no rough terrain vehicle yet exists that can protect its operator and safely fight fire at point blank range. This problem is all the more vexing in urban areas, where steep hillside canyon rims are crowded with expensive homes. When brush fires erupt, home owners are often left to fight the fire on their own with their garden hoses until the aerial fire tankers can arrive. This is so because no fire fighting equipment presently exists that can operate in the fire environment on rough or steep terrain. This often leads to a wholesale loss of property as overtaxed fire crews are reduced to being nothing more than traffic cops evacuating residents from neighborhoods that are being abandoned to fire.
When a fire is consuming wild lands or urban areas adjacent to wild lands, the conventional method of fighting the fire is to hose the fire with water from fire hydrants or water hauling vehicles, and to bomb the fire with water or fire retardant using airplanes or helicopters, or to fight the fire on the ground using hand tools or bulldozers or earth casting type machines. Under the current practice, protection of property must become a secondary goal whenever fire conditions threaten fire crews and their apparatus. Thus, when conditions are adverse, fire fighters are reduced to the role of "defenders," falling back to pre-established firebreaks, because no equipment exists that can safely attack fire at point blank range.
In recent years, increasingly sophisticated technology has been developed in a number of industries not related to fire fighting. These technical developments, if brought to bear in a single unit, give rise to the feasibility of a novel device such as the present invention. The following references, for example, disclose a variety of such sophisticated technologies.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,656, issued to Banahan in 1989, entitled "Fire Extinguishing Apparatus," discloses a tractor drawn fire extinguishing apparatus having a means of removing overburden and soil adjacent to burning terrain to expose nonflammable soil. Once removed, the soil particles are pumped through a guide chute thereby directing the soil particles onto the burning areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,867, issued to Weatherly, et al, in 1993, entitled "Forest Fire Extinguishing Apparatus," discloses a tractor drawn type implement for excavating soil with disks. Once excavated, the soil is then funneled into a pile in front of a rotating fan which throws the soil in a particular direction thereby covering, and extinguishing, the fire.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,855, issued to Forsyth in 1986, entitled "Vehicle Mounted Fire Fighting Apparatus," discloses a small truck-mounted device for fighting fires. This truck-mounted device pumps a liquid fire-fighting chemical through spray nozzles and hoses positioned about a truck enabling the truck to be used for close-range fire suppression.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,924, issued to Lee in 1994, entitled "Weed, Brush, and Small Tree Cutter," discloses a weed, brush and small tree cutter attachment for an ordinary rotary power lawnmower. The attachment consists of a chainsaw-type blade projecting from the front of the mower and is driven by a sprocket mounted to the rotary mower shaft.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,770, issued to Smothers in 1994, entitled "Jam-Proof Rotary Weed Cutter," discloses a rotary weed cutter tool that uses a number of flexible cutting filaments rotating about an axis at high speed. These flexible cutting filaments establish a cutting plane as the device is advanced through weeds or other brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,614, issued to Wu, et al, in 1992, entitled "Apparatus And Method For Accessing The Casing Of A Burning Oil Well," discloses a heat shielded apparatus and method for accessing the casing of a burning oil well. Specifically, the apparatus includes a sled-like carriage equipped with a digging device for excavating the area around the oil well casing to extinguish the well fire by applying a well plugging device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,163, issued to Uihlein, et al, in 1991, entitled "Surface Coating For Protecting A Component Against Titanium Fire And Method For Making The Surface Coating," discloses a method for coating a metal surface for protection against titanium fires. This method consists of embedding ceramic fibers in a matrix of high-temperature lacquer and aluminum powder, and applying the matrix to the metal to be protected.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,478, issued to Cummins in 1973, entitled "Remote Controlled Hazard-Fighting Vehicle," discloses a remote-controlled track-mounted vehicle with a movable turret. A nozzle mounted to the moveable turret is attached to a hose that leads to a source of pressurized fire-retardant fluid. Thus, by rotating the turret, a stream of the fire-retardant fluid may be directed at various locations in a fire fighting environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,763, issued to Klien in 1992, entitled "Vehicle Side Guard," discloses a protective device consisting of a light-weight material having a magnetic backing. The protective device attaches to a vehicle to prevent dings and other surface damaging contact.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,915, issued to Sprafke in 1993, entitled "Periscope At The Hatchway Of A Combat Vehicle," discloses a periscope at the hatchway of a combat vehicle. Specifically, the periscope comprises two sections separated by a dust brush that allows the hatch to be opened while insuring that minimal dirt interferes with the optical alignment of the periscope.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,803, also issued to Sprafke in 1992, entitled "Combat Vehicle With A Hatchway In Its Armored Roof And Including A System Of Periscopes," discloses a system of periscopes for a combat vehicle having an ocular lens inside the vehicle, an objective lens outside the vehicle, and an optical path extending between them.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,708, issued to Auterman in 1993, entitled "Three Dimensional Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Terrain Mapping With Unambiguous Phase Unwrapping Employing Subset Bandwidth Processing," discloses a three dimensional interferometric synthetic aperture radar terrain mapping system which produces a terrain map from the air. As disclosed, this radar mapping system is installed on an aircraft which is flown in a repetitive pattern over the territory to mapped.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,173, issued to Lerner, et al, in 1974, entitled "Ground Radar System," discloses a system to locate underground objects from a moving vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,841, issued to Shulenberger in 1991, entitled "Method And Apparatus For Ground Radar Information Display System," discloses a new use for existing air traffic control radar signals. Specifically, raw data from the existing Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System is processed and displayed to show positional information for commercial and general aviation purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,479, issued to Fike, et al, in 1973, entitled "Remotely Actuatable Portable Fire Suppression Apparatus," discloses a remotely activated portable fire suppression apparatus for use in a relatively confined area. Such areas would include engine compartments and restaurant ventilation hoods.
The preceding fire fighting devices are not specifically designed to traverse rough terrain to engage and destroy wild fire in the fire environment. The preceding radar devices are not specifically designed for use in guiding a fire-fighting vehicle over rough terrain in a fire environment by use of a three-dimensional topographical computer monitor display. The preceding automatic fire suppression apparatus is not specifically designed for highly localized all-direction massive discharge of fire retardant for suppression of fire in catastrophic fire conditions.
As a result of the above, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a Fire Fighting System having directionally controlled reversible rotary cutting elements, paddles, and fire whips designed for severe duty. These rotary cutting elements are mounted individually, or as in the preferred embodiment, in a gang and shall be adaptable for mounting to a highly mobile track excavator or other vehicle that can be used to engage fire and to destroy fire and combustible material, such as trees and brush.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a Fire Fighting System having the ability to toss the combustible material aside and cover it with earth by engaging the rotating cutting elements, fire whips, and paddles with the soil.
It is also an object and advantage of the present invention to provide a Fire Fighting System having a system of vehicle cabin enhancements. These cabin enhancements could include fire barrier shields, heat-proof glass, cabin climate control and sensory systems, thereby allowing the operator of the System to operate safely within the fire environment, and to provide the operator with information regarding exterior terrain and ground conditions so that operations can be maintained in the fire environment.
It is another object and an advantage of the present invention to provide a Fire Fighting System having a non-combustible fire barrier shield system for an excavator or vehicle. This system of fire shields can be generally detachable by use of fastening devices so that the excavator or vehicle can be returned to other use when not fighting fires.
It is yet another object and advantage of the present invention to provide a Fire Fighting System where the non-combustible fire barrier shield system employ cementous or other fire-stop material which, in the form used and under the conditions anticipated, will not ignite, burn, support combustion or release flammable vapors when subjected to fire or heat.
It is still another object and an advantage of the present invention to provide a Fire Fighting System having a vehicle cabin with telescope-mounted video, forward-looking ground radar and GPS/GIS topographical information map and infrared video. Such instrumentation allows the operator of the vehicle to be constantly aware of ground conditions and vehicle location relative to the proximity of a fire and other surroundings when smoke obscures normal vision.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a Fire Fighting System, mountable on an excavator or other vehicle, with ground sensing capabilities and a training wheel having a float valve to assist the operator in use of the Fire Fighting System.
It is yet another object to the present invention to provide a Fire Fighting System mountable on an excavator, or other vehicle, with a tree cutting shear which, when employed in combination with the training wheel, can safely cut and push over a tree, thereby removing the tree from the path of the advancing Fire Fighting System.
It is another object and advantage of the present invention to provide Fire Fighting System that can be operated remotely in some configurations.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a Fire Fighting System of the present invention which is safe and easy to use, relatively easy to manufacture, and comparatively cost effective.